St. Anthony Hotel renovations to begin early 2013; new owners undecided on future of adjacent lot

For the previous report on Travis Park, I interviewed Brandon Raney, CEO of BC Lynd Hospitality, the partnership that purchased the historic St. Anthony Hotel in April. They’ve been planning the hotel’s restoration since the purchase. Raney wouldn’t give specifics on how many millions of dollars BC Lynd Hospitality is pouring into the St. Anthony, but he did confirm that it is millions and that he looks forward to the work beginning in early 2013. Also, they aren’t ready to release plans.

What I was more interested in was the adjacent parking lot — the shoddy one east of Travis Park. The approximate one-acre lot came with the purchase of the St. Anthony.

The imagination runs wild as to what could — should — be built there.

BC Lynd is a partnership between locals Raney, Clyde Johnson IV and The Lynd Company (so it’s not wholly owned by The Lynd Company). Lynd is a national builder of residential buildings, and also manages dozens other apartment buildings nationwide. Read this previous post for more on the Lynd Co.’s resume.

But it has yet to build anything in downtown San Antonio. My brain immediately thinks apartment building for that parking lot. But the area also is in desperate need of a parking garage for the future Tobin Center for the Performing Arts two block north.

“Very frankly, we’ve been focused on the hotel and what we’re doing there,” Raney said. “Obviously we have a piece of land over there that has redevelopment potential, but we haven’t put together a plan, or even thought of what we might do with it. Right now it’s parking for the hotel. … It sits right on Travis Park. We think there’s an opportunity for a development there in the future. Is just hasn’t been defined, yet.”

Just three blocks southwest of Travis Park, the Lynd Company and another set of partners are under contract for 1.3 acres of land along East Houston and Soledad streets that include the historic Book Building and the former Solo Serve. A study partly commissioned by the city on how to best develop those parcels have yet to be released.